On Christmas Eve, it will be three years and nine months since President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, into law.

Seven decades ago, it took less time — 3 years, 8 months and 26 days, from December 7, 1941, to September 2, 1945 — for the nation to endure the attack on Pearl Harbor, rebuild an undermanned and underequipped military, put the nation’s industrial might on a wartime footing, prosecute World War II, complete the Manhattan Project, and force the surrender of Nazi Germany and Japan.

Now we’re supposed to believe, even when given virtually unlimited resources, a 42-month head start, and another three months to make corrections, that the people in our government and the contractors who serve it are so breathtakingly stupid and incredibly incompetent that they can’t properly set up Obamacare’s bureaucracy, create functioning online and offline consumer interfaces, and build the systems required to communicate and interact with insurance companies participating in its federal exchanges.

I certainly don’t.

Evidence supporting what I have contended in my previous two columns — namely that those in charge of implementing Obamacare cannot possibly be as stupid or incompetent as they are allowing themselves to appear — continues to mount.

The most obvious indicators don’t relate to planning and development tasks performed poorly. They instead involve the ones which haven’t been performed at all.

Web site security issues have been ignored from the get-go, to the point where IT security experts insist that no one who cares about the privacy and safety of their personal information should even think about logging on to HealthCare.gov. The government’s response has been to give itself a security waiver and pretend that nothing’s amiss.

Then there’s the system for making subsidy payments to insurance companies for eligible enrollees. There isn’t one.

Henry Chao, deputy chief information officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told a House committee in mid-November that “the payment systems, they still need be built.” The government’s response has been to let the insurance companies wing it and estimate the subsidies they’re owed — subject, of course, to “negotiations” on an obviously not level playing field. It’s a safe prediction that this situation will endure well into 2014. One begins to wonder if those systems will ever be built.

Chaos skeptics will have an especially difficult time explaining away the administration’s December 12 move.

That day, it announced that it would “ask” insurance companies to cover virtually any patient who requests medical care in early 2014, whether or not there is any tangible evidence that they have paid their monthly premiums, or have even enrolled. Note that the lack of said evidence is entirely due to the government’s billion-dollar failure to build reliable enrollment and payment systems.

It would appear that doctors, hospitals and other medical providers who have agreed to serve Obamacare patients will also have to see and treat any patient who claims to have enrolled, regardless of whether that provider is in the related insurance plan’s network.

A Wall Street Journal editorial summarized the situation fairly well — “the White House wants to transfer political accountability to the insurers.” But medical providers and all who work for and provide services to them will also be unwilling participants in this purely political accountability avoidance ploy. They and their insurers are being forced to take on completely unacceptable and potentially bankrupting financial risks in a $7 billion per day industry.

Kathleen Sebelius’s Department of Health and Human Services has ways to deal with any insurance company which might consider rebelling at the prospect of seeing their owners and shareholders lose everything because of government-orchestrated chaos: “The regulatory fine print reveals that HHS intends to kick insurers off the exchanges if they don’t obey.” Some “marketplace” this is.

Now we can begin to see, with the help of the Daily Caller’s Mickey Kaus, where this is all heading:

HHS has pretty clearly escaped the rule of law and entered a world of corporatist haggling, where political leaders and a few big industry types sit around the table and work everything out.

The health insurance industry blithely ignored the authoritarian and extra-legal warning signs which were clearly visible to all with open eyes as far back as Obama’s first presidential campaign in 2008 — his announced plan to use regulations to “bankrupt” anyone who dared to start up a new coal-based energy plant, the campaign’s deliberate lack of controls over online contributions, and the organized attempts to shout down opponents, to name just a few. Lured by the false promise of millions of new and theoretically profitable customers, it chose to live with state-run health care instead of fighting it tooth and nail, as it successfully did against HillaryCare two decades earlier.

The industry’s reward will be to spend countless hours haggling with their only real customer who is not their equal, but their master.

What will happen if their conduct doesn’t meet the administration’s arbitrary and ever-changing definition of acceptability? Ask Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Obama’s home state. They’ll exploit any resistance as an excuse to slow but surely accomplish the left’s Holy Grail goal: “put the private insurance industry out of business” and impose a de facto single-payer, completely government-controlled regime on the entire nation. The insurance companies may continue to exist for a while for appearances’ sake, but they will be firmly under the government’s boot, perhaps in relatively short order.

Is it only a coincidence that this is exactly how budding tyrannies often work in their early stages? Is it really reasonable to believe that all of this “just happened”? I think not.

Along with having a decades-long career in accounting, finance, training and development, Tom Blumer has written for several national online publications primarily on business, economics, politics and media bias. He has had his own blog, BizzyBlog.com, since 2005, and has been a PJM contributor since 2008.

What part of gansta government don't you get? Your naive confidence that all government actors will act in good faith is commendable.

Others of us have watched Obama get away with hiding his background/identity, breaking campaign finance law, intimidate political opponents and generally act outside the law, continuously.

What makes you think that Sheik Obama will not simply issue an executive order, or even more likely, just simply announce by press release, that he is changing the law and from this moment on, private insurance is outlawed?

"Now we’re supposed to believe ... that the people in our government ... are so breathtakingly stupid and incredibly incompetent that they can’t properly set up Obamacare’s bureaucracy, create functioning online and offline consumer interfaces, and build the systems required to communicate and interact with insurance companies participating in its federal exchanges."

Tom, I checked your Bio - it's not obvious that you've ever worked for the Federal Government. If you had, then you would know that; yes, they are that stupid.

The Cloward-Piven "overwhelm the system by over feeding it" plot thickens.

So, let's summarize:

Obama and his cabal constructed a law that they passed as one Party, in the middle of the night, that nobody read and had to be passed, in reconciliation, to find out what's in it.

They said it wan't a tax, and simultaneously argued before the Supreme Court that it was. They lied.

They also said if you like your plan, your doctor, your hospital...you could keep them. They lied.

They built into the scheme a myriad of trip wires and traps that take away your coverage. For instance, at an age certain...you cannot obtain cancer treatment. They refuse to allow it. They are going to "let" you die. Except for the Workers Party and themselves...they have exemptions.

They spied on Americans and SICCED the IRS on innocent people. Then removed ALL the security from Obamacare and put the IRS in charge of oversight of "compliance".

They didn't build that...when it comes to a payment back end. On a Hollywood lot...there is no need to build a back of the house or western town...when the facades are all you need. If you have no intention of taking payments...why bother building a system for taking them?

Then, after a billion dollars being given to communist cronies...for not building security or a payment system, for a website that was not tested and doesn't work...they put "enrollees" on the "honor system" for declaring eligibility for income.

And told insurers and doctors they had to take "enrollees" who may not qualify, may have committed fraud on declared income and may not have enrolled at all...and serve them. ( very similar to the CRA created crash of real estate and banking...forcing NINJA loans onto the lenders or be sued as racist)

So, a "risk pool" of non-paying, sick, elderly, no income, identity insecure, possibly unenrolled patients swarm a shallow supply of inferior doctors who are involved in a plan with no payment apparatus.

Obamacare demands that border crashers obtain full service and since there is no security system or income checking...and since Nancy Pelosi has declared that anyone can bust into the country and will not be bothered...the whole operation can become patients without borders.

Where is there ANY sign that this was intended to do anything other than collapse free market democracy? Now, onto automotive, banking, real estate, energy, manufacturing, medical devices, media and the Internet!

I believe that the current screw-up of ObamaCare is completely due to incompetence.

First, the weak evidence: Obama wanted everyone to be using an ACA-approved (and controlled) insurer. He then wanted things to go to hell in a handbasket. Obama and his media lap dogs would blame clinicians, hospitals, and insurers for the mess and advocate a single-payer solution.

Second, the experience evidence: I've been involved in two big government computing projects for the Veterans Health Administration. Many months were spent just drawing up the specs. Contractors were chosen (another 9 months) to assist with the projects. Project management was a complete cluster fug. The project that was mostly done by VA programmers was a complete failure: it was less capable than the ancient mediocre system it was supposed to replace. The other project was 90% third party, but the VHA specifications robbed that information system of half of its power. Both projects took five years.

The upfront failure of ObamaCare will be devastating to the left-wingers who long for control the the health care sector. The failure is due to incompetence, which is hardly surprising given past information technology failures. It is likely that ObamaCare will have to be further delayed. In 2017, it is likely that the Republicans will regain power and end it. (Then they'll waste the money on something else.)

Where do all these insurance companies park all those insurance premiums? That would be in the capital markets. Insurance companies are the largest liquid asset in the capital markets. They can react with lightning speed to an unexpected rise in claims.

All this capital will go "poof."

Considering all the fundamental damage BHO has done to our government and our economy, the easy answer is he is out to destroy capitialism. But capitalism is a derived construct.

Capitalism cannot exist without freedom. That freedom is the mark in this criminal enterprise we call our government today. The tax paying citizen is the patsy.

As and American I know how the Single payer system works in Canada .First off it is not free because you Pay a PPI % based on incomes monthly .While all income ,PROPERTY ,Retail , product and food taxes are far higher as are gas and electricity at triple the cost than in America. It works on a ranking of 1-10 as a 4 . I was based for 9 years in Toronto Canada in the Furn,Ind. with 368 total employees . The problem is slow care much like the well meaning but pathetic VA here .Remember there are only 34.6 Million living in Canada .We alone have 38.6 Million living in Calif. Plus far more Canadians have full time jobs in far higher % than do Americans . As well as far more educated and Job Skilled . Lastly if you want to see a GP It takes 3+ Months .. A Specialist ...another three +months .If you need surgery 3-4 Month if your below 60 and the 3 boards approve it . It takes 3-4 more months .Over 60-62 ? Good Luck on the pain pills .Canada because of great demands is back to making private health care available and it is growing very fast .It used to be a crime for that cash care the last 44 years .The sentence was never again receiving health in Canada . Canadians think our Govt.is sick since well over 1.6 Million Canadians come to AMERICA for far quicker health care , surgeries and special treatments .

I'm an American long resident in Australia. Thanks for the first hand account of the Canadian system. It is like Australian Medicare, but we have also have a system of private hospitals and insurance which compliments the public system. Hence our system is NOT single payer. The private system takes the pressure off the public system to which everyone contributes with the Medicare Levy on their income tax. Those who can afford it pay for private health but also have access to public hospitals. So in an emergency the ambulance takes you to the nearest public hospital and it costs you nothing. There are tight cost controls in the public system and people wait a long time for operations in the public system. I have private insurance so I don't have artificial waiting times. I can see a GP pretty much at will. The medicine here is excellent and it is uncommon for anyone to end up with a substantial medical bill. It costs a bit under 10% of GDP. The US costs 16% and is capped by the ACA I have read at 17.5% by 2017 in the actual bill! If they really try to go single payer I think the electoral rebellion would be monumental. In any case American health care costs about double the OECD average and the health outcomes are actually slightly worse in the US but not significantly so despite not covering everyone. My advice would be to reform the existing US public system and let insurance based care build an excellent private system on top of the public system as outlined above. Micky Kaus suggested to Glenn Reynolds that they could drop the Medicare age progressively (sorry about that word) downwards. The key is to not go single payer, but let a healthy competitive private health insurance take the pressure off the public system built on the current Medicare and Medicaid systems. By disrupting the private health insurance market they have created a serious problem. Paul Ryan sounded a bit silly talking about 'saving medicare' in 2012, but now that may be just the right approach to dealing with the chaos caused by the ACA.

Here's the part I don't get: they have lost all credibility, destroyed any chance of bipartisanship, and proven that they are completely incompetent. Having accomplished that, how do the Democrats expect the electorate to trust them to clean up their own mess, let alone institute a single-payer system? The Democrats are permanently associated with this fiasco. Most people have enough sense not to bet on a loser, thinking his luck is bound to turn.

While they have the legal authority to bankrupt the insurance companies they have no authority over providers. The "you have treat everyone" laws only appliy to emergency rooms. They cannot order a doctor to treat people for free. If that is their plan it will crash and burn as fast the website. The one flaw in converting the US medical care system to single payer is you can't force doctors to participate and without control of both Houses of Congress the Administration can't get the law changed. The blue states that might attempt to turn doctors into state employees will quickly find themselves with little of no medical care as doctors quit or leave the state, and Hospitals shut down.

Single product insurance companies like Blue Cross might cave to government demands but multiproduct companies like Aetna can drop their health insurance line if is going to cost the company money. Kicking them out of the O-care market places is an empty threat. Until private insurance is outlawed, which also would need to pass both Houses of Congress, health insurance providers can operate outside the O-care market place.

Single payer isn't going to happen. O-care has made that impossible for a generation. All the polls indicate that the Democrats in general and Obama in particular are being blamed for the chaos, not the insurance companies or healthcare providers.

Yes, I agree it isn't on the cards. There is starting to be serious talk about the legal problems of Obama amending the law to try to make it work and I think we will start to get legal challenges that stick . Anytime you have a bad design and you try to fix it with tweaks you have to keep on tweaking. You just can't go on changing a law without having to go back to Congress - or you end up in court.

What part of gansta government don't you get? Your naive confidence that all government actors will act in good faith is commendable.

Others of us have watched Obama get away with hiding his background/identity, breaking campaign finance law, intimidate political opponents and generally act outside the law, continuously.

What makes you think that Sheik Obama will not simply issue an executive order, or even more likely, just simply announce by press release, that he is changing the law and from this moment on, private insurance is outlawed?

Are you a moron? He can screw with the insurance companies and drive some of them out of business but he can't ban them. The Federal government doesn't even have that authority. And he can't order doctors to take patients. They can always fold their tent. What is he going to do, draft them?

Of course, you are completely correct. It's as clear as a bell, and has been to anyone who has the time to really look and evaluate what's been going on.

It's all about moving toward single-payer.

I didn't think it would happen this fast, or in this way ... and don't know if they actually planned for the website to be such a disaster -- or, it's just that since they see the implementation as so irrelevant, that they just didn't bother about it.

It may turn out to ultimately harm them in some way -- as so many are so upset by it all, and are beginning to question. We can only hope, but I don't believe it will turn out to matter much. The uninformed public has been moved to a belief trend that "the gov't should provide and capitalism, and private corporations are bad."

The system has to slowly degrade for the Democrats to ease into single payer. With the public's short attention span people were supposed forget what quality medical care looked like. As the system ground to halt the Democrats wold step forward with their "see the private sector failed again" rhetoric so they could sell government provided "free" healthcare to the public. That is not what's happening. The public is seeing the government destroy the healthcare system. All the polls show that the public wants to go back to square one.

As I follow this worsening nightmare I sometimes think it is the result of Obama's incompetence. Then I remember that he is surrounded and supported by a cadre of radical, intelligent, ruthless left wingers who are driven by an ideology born of a hatred for our way of life and our system of government. Now that they are closer to destroying our country than ever, they will stop at nothing to succeed. All these creative adjustments are stopgap measures to keep Obamacare on life support until things get so bad that he throws up his hands and says, "Well, God knows we tried everything and now that the insurance industry has been destroyed our only option is single payer." Saul Aulinski could not have done a better job, unfortunately for us.

"Now we’re supposed to believe ... that the people in our government ... are so breathtakingly stupid and incredibly incompetent that they can’t properly set up Obamacare’s bureaucracy, create functioning online and offline consumer interfaces, and build the systems required to communicate and interact with insurance companies participating in its federal exchanges."

Tom, I checked your Bio - it's not obvious that you've ever worked for the Federal Government. If you had, then you would know that; yes, they are that stupid.

Having done a lot of government contracting, I'm with you here, IcePilot. The government is incompetent enough to screw up the software. To think that they might be able to succeed eventually is evidence of delusion.